Pentecost 10, Year C

Proper 12 -- Hosea 1: 1 – 10; Psalm 85; Colossians 2: 6 – 19; Luke 11: 1 – 13

A homily by Fr. Gene Tucker, given at Trinity Church, Mt. Vernon, Illinois on Sunday, July 28, 2013.

“A PRIMER ON PRAYER”

(Homily text:  Luke 11: 1 – 13)

“Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples,” one of Jesus’ disciples asks Him in today’s gospel reading.

What follows is a slightly different version of  the Lord’s Prayer from the version found in Matthew’s gospel account, [1] along with two brief parables about the generosity of God the Father’s willingness to answer our prayers.

Prayer has sometimes been called our “Lifeline to God”.

If an active life of prayer is so important to our wellbeing, perhaps we might explore some of the characteristics of a healthy prayer life.

We should begin by saying that a regular prayer life is essential for all Christians to follow.  At times, I hear a parent say of a now-grown child, “I never hear from them.”  Sometimes, that statement also has another clause added to it, and it goes like this: “Unless they need something.”  We can see, from this human example, that a one-sided or irregular relationship is unsatisfying, and doesn’t reflect the level of love that one would normally expect to find between a parent and a child.  Making prayer a part of every day’s living is essential to maintaining a strong link to God the Father through God the Son, in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Next, we might explore the various tools one can use to maintain an active prayer life.  They might include

 

Formal, written prayers:  The Prayer Book excels in this area, giving us a rich variety of prayers for a number of different occasions (see pages 810 – 841).  Many of these prayers capture the sense of our occasions of thanksgiving, or our prayers in times of need for ourselves or for others, so beautifully and well that they may surpass our ability to put into words the things that are on our hearts and in our minds.

Prayer cards:  I make use of 3 X 5 cards to remind me of those things I am asking God to grant on behalf of others, and for myself.  I date the card at the time I begin using it during my Morning Prayer time.  When the petition has been answered somehow, I usually change the card to reflect thanksgiving to God for His answer to that prayer.  Other ways of using lists (the Parish Prayer List in Sunday’s bulletin and in the monthly newsletter, for example) can also be helpful in keeping those things before us that we need to remember as we bring them to the heavenly throne of God.

Freeform prayer:  God answers prayer!  (We will explore the ways in which God will answer prayer in a moment.)  God answers prayer, no matter the form that the prayer might take.  For Christians who worship according to our rich, liturgical tradition, using the Book of Common Prayer, some may not be all-that-comfortable expressing a prayer without the use of a formal, written prayer.  The truth is, however, that God answers prayer, even if it seems like a clumsy utterance.  With time, patience and practice, our extemporaneous prayer can become a more easily expressed reality.  As we engage in that habit of practicing our extemporaneous prayer, we need to remember that God already knows the things that are on our minds and in our hearts before we make them known.  So, go ahead and try to set aside any reservations that might make us feel uncomfortable or clumsy in our expressions to God in prayer.

 

A balanced prayer life is a sign of a healthy spiritual relationship with God.  Here, we come back to the illustration of the parent who says, “I never hear from my child, unless they want something.”  Our prayer life can look a lot like that, meaning that we might go to God in prayer only to ask for something.  But a balanced prayer life contains the following ingredients:

 

Adoration and thanksgiving:  A well-balanced prayer life often begins by telling God just how awesome He is, and to thank Him for His mercy, goodness and faithfulness.  Along with this aspect of prayer, we ought also to thank God for the blessings He has given us, and for answers to prayer.

 

Confession:  Here, we acknowledge before God the ways in which we have fallen short of His standard of righteousness and holiness.  God’s holiness demands that we “own up” to the ways we fall short of that measure of holiness, knowing that, as we do so, we are confessing to a merciful God, a God who stands more ready to forgive than we are to ask for forgiveness (as the Prayer Book puts it).  God’s holiness, righteousness and judgment are always linked to God’s mercy, grace and forgiveness.

Petition and intercessions:  Asking God for something is the most common ingredient in people’s prayers.  But as we ask, we need to keep in mind the two main categories of this aspect of praying….Petitions are those things that we ask God to grant for ourselves.  Intercessions are those things we are asking God to grant on behalf of others.

God always answers prayer!  His answers will generally fall into three areas:

• Yes!   God grants the request (though not always in the timeframe we have in mind!).

• No!   God’s denial of our request often means that He has something else – something better – in mind for us.  After all, we can’t see the whole picture of a concern like He can.  So, we need to trust God for His wisdom and His insight into a situation.  (Allow me to make a personal observation:  In my own life, I can see that, when God has denied a request, He always had something better in mind than I did….Indeed, “All things work together for good for those who love the Lord,”….Romans 8: 28)

• Not now:  When God doesn’t answer a prayer right away, it is usually because His timeline is better than ours.  When God doesn’t answer a prayer in the span of time we have in mind, our faith may be tested….sometimes, that’s exactly the reason for the delay, to test our faith.  But here is where persistence comes in, and Jesus makes a particular point about being persistent in our prayers in the parable He lays before us in today’s gospel reading, as He says, “I tell you, yet because of his importunity he will rise and give him whatever he needs.”  The word “importunity” might be better translated as “persistence”.  Since we life in an age of instant gratification and instant answers to problems, it is wise to be aware of the ways in the “spirit of the age” conditions our expectations with regard to the timing of God’s answer.

Finally, it’s important to remember that prayer is a two-way conversation.  We must take time in our prayer life to be silent and to listen for God’s reply.

AMEN.

 

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[1] Some biblical scholars have suggested that Jesus may have given this different version of the Lord’s Prayer because He was teaching the disciples.  In Matthew’s gospel account, Jesus gives the Lord’s Prayer in the context of the Sermon on the Mount.

Pentecost 9, Year C

Proper 11 -- Amos 8:1–12; Psalm 52; Colossians 1:15–28; Luke 10:38–42

A homily by Fr. Gene Tucker, given at Trinity Church, Mt. Vernon, Illinois on Sunday, July 21, 2013.

"DISTRACTED, ANXIOUS AND TROUBLED”

Homily text:  Luke 10: 38 – 42)

“Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things;  one thing is needful.  Mary has chosen the good portion, which shall not be taken away from her.”

These words of Jesus, spoken as Martha complains to the Lord about her sister, Mary, who sits at the Lord’s feet and listens to Him teach (while she goes about getting the evening meal together and on the table), could describe many – if not most – of the people living in our community and nation today….we are an anxious and troubled people.  We are also distracted by many things, as the writer Neil Postman says so eloquently in his excellent book entitled, “Amusing ourselves to Death”.  We have more ways to amuse and distract ourselves than any previous generation of human beings in history.

These two sisters, Mary and Martha, set before us two ways of living and being:  The one way seeks to focus on the Lord and on His way and His teachings.  The other way calls us to deal with the everyday cares and chores of daily living.

Chances are that most of us won’t completely escape living in what has been called a “Martha world”,[1] as we cope with the demands and the stresses of everyday living.  Few of us would choose to enter a monastery or a convent and devote ourselves to a life of prayer and study.

And yet, as we come to terms with the fact that we will be dealing with everyday concerns and problems, how can we manage to keep our focus on the foundational things of God?

One very effective answer is the Church.

The Church exists to give a time away from everyday concerns and problems.  The Church exists to allow us to sit at the Lord’s feet (figuratively) and listen to His teachings.  The Church offers us the opportunity to be fed from the Lord’s table in the Holy Eucharist as we become one with the Lord in this glorious Sacrament of the altar.

Let’s explore some of the ways that the Church does all these things:

Everyday cares and problems are brought into the Church on Sunday morning, and – along with our very selves – are laid on the altar for God’s providence and God’s saving help to deal with.  As the old language of the Prayer Book puts it, “And here we offer and present unto thee, O Lord, ourselves, our souls and bodies, to be a reasonable, holy, and living sacrifice unto thee….”[2]

A holy space is created within the Church, by means of its architecture, furnishings, stained glass, altar furnishings, and the like.  Secular images and visible things that would remind us of worldly things have no place in this sacred space.  The stained glass blocks out the world outside as the light from without brings to life the sacred images that are in the stained glass.  The sanctuary lamp reminds us that the Lord is present under the forms of bread and wine, which are reserved in the Tabernacle behind the altar.

We worship with our bodies as we honor this sacred space by reverencing the altar with a genuflection or a solemn bow.[3]  We kneel to confess our sins, we stand to hear the gospel read, and to sing hymns.  We sit to hear instruction (as in the homily).  We honor the Lord, therefore, by using our bodies as worship instruments.

Our music is distinctly sacred in its sound and in its texts.  The traditional hymns we sing are full of magnificent theology.  Singing them unites us with the saints who have gone before us, and who now stand around the heavenly throne, singing their praises to God.

Silence forms much of what happens in the liturgy.  There are specific times for silence, and some of these occasions are directed in the rubrics of the Prayer Book.[4]

Our liturgical worship draws from a vast storehouse of Christian worship, some of which comes to us from the 4th century![5]  The traditional language rites (known as Rite I) preserve the 16th century forms that come to us from Archbishop Cranmer’s pen and mind.  The old language rite brings to life the language of Shakespeare and the King James Bible.

All of these things are meant to allow what happens during our worship on Sunday morning to inform and shape the remainder of our lives, Monday through Saturday.  There is no sense in which our Sunday church experience is meant to be an escape from everyday challenges….on the contrary, worshipping God is intended to equip us for living, day in and day out.

At this point, it’s worth mentioning that several spiritual disciplines will help to sustain our Sunday morning worship experience as we make our way through the week.  We can strengthen our spiritual life by:  Having a regular life of prayer, as we thank God for all of His blessings, and lay before Him our concerns for ourselves and for others;  making it a habit to read the Bible;  praying the Daily Office (Morning and/or Evening Prayer) in the Prayer Book;  attending the educational offerings of the Church;  and using a daily devotional.

Finally, many of the things we value as Episcopal/Anglican Christians are exquisite gifts to the remainder of the Christian family, and to the world:

We stand to remind other Christians that the faith once delivered to the saints is an ancient faith, and yet, it is contemporary to all the challenges and problems of life today. 

We stand to remind other Christians that worship must not be confused with entertainment, and that the forms and styles of the world cannot be applied to genuine Christian worship without compromise. 

We stand to remind other Christians that the Church is built around the foundation of Jesus Christ, and not on the cult of personality of a charismatic leader or pastor.  As I am fond of saying, “One function of the liturgy is to save the people from the priest!”  This statement is meant to be a humorous way of saying that the liturgy will carry itself, and if done reasonably well, will tend to draw the worshipper’s focus away from the individual (the Celebrant) and toward God.

We stand to remind other Christians that formal, liturgical worship is not intended to be a museum piece, but to state unequivocally that formal, liturgical worship contains all the drama of the God who loved us so much that He sent His only-begotten Son to take on our humanity.

May we approach the sacred things of the Church to be enlightened, forgiven and strengthened for daily living, knowing that everything we do is done in the sight of God.

AMEN.

 

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[1]   This phrase comes from a book written by Joanna Weaver which is titled, Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World.

[2]   From the Eucharistic Prayer in Rite I, page 336 in the The Book of Common Prayer, 1979.

[3]   A solemn bow is a bow from the waist, and it is equivalent to a genuflection.  For those for whom a genuflection is difficult to do, a solemn bow presents a good alternative.

[4]   The Book of Common Prayer Book, 1979 is the first one to specify occasions when silence is to be kept.  This is an excellent addition to our liturgical life.

[5]   Part of Rite II, Eucharistic Prayer D dates from the 4th century Liturgy of St. Basil.

Pentecost 8, Year C

Proper 10 - Amos 7: 7 – 17; Psalm 82; Colossians 1: 1 – 14; Luke 10: 25 – 37

A homily by Fr. Gene Tucker, given at Trinity Church, Mt. Vernon, Illinois on Sunday, July 14, 2013.

 

“OBSTACLES TO UPWARD MOBILITY”

(Homily text:  Luke 10: 25 – 37)

Down through time, human beings have consistently longed for freedom, and for the ability to better their situation in life.  Succinctly put, we might say that human beings long to have the ability to be upwardly mobile, to be able to live life without barriers to a better tomorrow.

 

If we examine some significant events in our own nation’s history, we can see this desire and longing in practice……For example, just ten days ago, we celebrated the 237th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, which stated that “all men are created equal, and are endowed by their Creator to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”  Essentially, that declaration of independence from the British crown was a declaration that we, the people of the United States, are entitled to pursue our own betterment and welfare, and to determine our future for ourselves.  It was also based on the idea that we need not be second-class members of the gathering of the nations of the world.  Another such example exists in the Civil Rights struggles of the 1960s and 1970s.  This movement was dedicated to the principle that no person should ever be relegated to second-class citizenship because of their racial heritage or ethnic identity.

 

Second-class citizenship lies at the heart of Jesus’ Parable of the Good Samaritan, which we have heard in our gospel reading for this Sunday.  The hero of the story is a second-class citizen, a Samaritan.

Before we look at the implications of Jesus’ teaching in this parable, let’s take a moment to look back into history to determine just why it was that the Jews of Jesus’ day disliked the Samaritans so much, relegating them to second-class status.

As we go back into history, we must travel back to the eighth century BC, to the time when the Assyrian Empire conquered the Northern Kingdom of Israel.  When the Assyrian army defeated the Northern Kingdom in 722 BC, the ten tribes that had made up the kingdom disappeared as many of them were scattered abroad.  Some remained, and those that did eventually intermarried with newly settled peoples whom the Assyrians had brought into the area.  The resulting inhabitants of the land, known as Samaritans, were racially part-Jewish, part-something else.  These Samaritans maintained their own version of the first five books of the Bible,[1] those that were written by Moses, and they maintained their own places of worship.[2]

 

So, from a Jewish point-of-view, the Samaritans were second-class persons, who were racially impure.  Moreover, they were unclean, because they didn’t worship at the right mountain, and because they had a “corrupted” version of the Scriptures.  Worst of all, from the Jewish perspective that was common in Jesus’ day,  these Samaritans were permanently in this situation, because of their bloodline.

As we look at the Parable of the Good Samaritan from the perspective of the expected Jewish regard for Samaritans, we get the idea that Jesus’ intent is to shock His listeners by making a Samaritan the hero of the story.  It is the Samaritan, after all, who does the right thing in caring for the injured man.

 But what of the priest and the Levite, who are members of two of the three classes of priests in Jesus’ day?  They flunk the test of what is right to do, given the injured man’s presence along the road.  Why?  The reason has to do with being “clean” or “unclean” for ritual purposes.  If the priest and the Levite were to come into contact with the injured man, and especially into contact with his blood, they would become ritually unclean themselves.  So, the point Jesus seems to be making here is that their concern to remain ritually clean is less important than caring for a fellow human being who is in dire need.

(The great concern that people of Jesus’ day had for being clean or unclean seems to us to be a very strange way to organize one’s life, given that that concern was often applied not only to moral considerations, but instead was quite often applied to everyday situations, things like how far could own walk on the Sabbath, or whether one could pluck grain on the Sabbath.)

Jesus’ teaching shatters the expectations of the people who had gathered around Him.  His teaching foretells the coming of the Kingdom of God, a new kingdom that will welcome all persons to be its citizens, giving to each one who comes to citizenship in this new kingdom the ability to be upwardly mobile in relationship to God, a kingdom that will welcome Jew and Greek, slave and free, male and female.[3] All will be one in Christ Jesus.

And what of us?  What about our attitudes and regard for others, especially those who differ from us in one way or another?

Are we aware – through the guidance and presence of the Holy Spirit – of the ways in which our culture encourages us to put people into categories, and to keep them there?  Alas, unredeemed human nature being what it is, it would be easy for us to allow the “spirit of the age” in which we live to seep into our own thinking and acting, categorizing people as being from the wrong part of the country or the world, from the “other side of the tracks”, or in some other way regarding them as “other”, as something lesser than we are.

Are we aware of the ways that we, as Christians, fail to fully claim God’s promise of new life and a new beginning to all who come to Him in faith?  For example, some Christians make permanent second-class citizens out of those who have been through the trauma of divorce.  For another, some Christians make permanent second-class citizens out of those who have succumbed to one addiction or another, or who have gone through a period of living far apart from God’s holy desires for us. 

But we say that we know that God can forgive and receive each one of us anew.  After all, in the time after Jesus’ resurrection and ascension into heaven, even the Samaritans received the Good News of Jesus Christ and were made citizens of God’s kingdom.  So, too, down through the ages, countless numbers of the lower classes of society, of those who were guilty of all sorts of serious wrongdoing, of those who had lived far apart from God’s standards of holiness and righteousness, all these were seen by God as worthy of His love and His forgiveness.  In the process, obstacles to upward spiritual mobility were taken away by this loving and forgiving God that we follow, worship and adore.

Perhaps Jesus’ parable before us today still has the power to shock us into seeing people as God sees them, so that we might live out our baptismal covenant by “seeking and serving Christ in all persons, loving our neighbor as ourselves.”  (From the Baptismal Covenant, page 305 in the Book of Common Prayer, 1979).

May God’s Holy Spirit enlighten us and enable us!

AMEN.

 

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[1]  The Samaritan version of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy are still in print.

[2]  In Jesus’ day the Samaritan holy place was located at Mt. Gerazim.  The question of which mountain was the proper place to worship God (Mt. Gerazim in Samaria or Mt. Zion in Jerusalem) figured prominently in Jesus’ conversation with the Samaritan woman at the well.  See John, chapter four.

[3]  These categories are spelled out by St. Paul in Galatians 3: 28.

Pentecost 7, Year C

Proper 9: II Kings 5:1-14; Psalm 66:1-8; Galatians 6:1-16; Luke 10:1–11, 16-20

A homily by Fr. Gene Tucker, given at Trinity Church, Mt. Vernon, Illinois on Sunday, July 7, 2013.

"SPECIFIC INSTRUCTIONS”

(Homily texts: II Kings 5:1–14 and Luke 10:1–11, 16-20)
 

At first glance, our Old Testament reading from Second Kings and our gospel reading, from Luke, chapter ten, don’t have much – if anything – in common.

But if we take a second look, we can see that, in each reading, there are specific instructions which are to be followed…..In Na’aman’s case, the prophet Elisha tells him that, in order to be cleansed from his leprosy, he must wash himself in the Jordan River seven times.  And, in our gospel reading, Jesus gives specific instructions for the seventy [1] who are sent out in advance of the places He Himself will go.

It would be worth our while to spend some time looking at these specific instructions, for, at times, we will ask the Lord for something specific for ourselves (a healing, perhaps, or perhaps help with a problem we are facing).  At other times, the Lord will ask something of us, something that He wants done.  In any case, I suspect we will find ourselves on one side of this relationship or another as we make our way along the road of faith.

Let’s turn, then, to the situation with Na’aman…..

We might want to spend a little time looking at the background of this situation, for, at first glance, the details which lie behind the encounter between Na’aman and Elisha might not be clear.

It seems that some sort of a quiet truce must have existed between Israel and Syria at the time of Na’aman’s visit to Elisha.  We can note that, in I Kings 22: 29 – 36, Israel had been defeated by Syria, so perhaps that is now the situation.  In any event, Na’aman’s arrival causes the king of Israel to suspect that Syria is now trying to renew the war between them.  The elaborate gifts that come with Na’aman’s appearance dispel that notion, however, although the king is at a loss as to how to fulfill the request to heal Na’aman or his leprosy. [2]

Several details deserve our attention, at this point:

1.  An unnamed servant girl is God’s agent for connecting Na’aman to Elisha.  Here, it is a case of “good things coming out of bad things”, for the servant girl was captured during a Syrian raid into Israel.

2.  As Na’aman comes to Elisha’s house, he is the one who comes with specific instructions….As Elisha sends out a messenger to tell him what he must do to be healed of his condition, he makes it clear that he expects Elisha to come out, meet him, and say the right words to cure him.  Moreover, Na’aman seems to indicate that coming to wash in the Jordan River is a waste of time, for he claims that the rivers in Syria are cleaner than the Jordan.

3.  Elisha’s instructions are a test of Na’aman’s ability to follow orders.  (Isn’t it interesting that this general of the Syrian army is now the one who must follow orders, orders with specific instructions!)  The test comes in the form of having to use the Jordan River, not the Pharpar or the Abana Rivers in Syria, and to wash seven times in the Jordan, not just once.

Though our reading stops at verse fourteen, if we continue on in the text one verse more, we read that Na’aman came to faith in the God of Israel, exclaiming, “I know that there is no God in all the earth but in Israel….”

Now, let’s turn our attention to Jesus’ instructions to the seventy (or seventy-two) who are sent out in advance of His visitation….

We remarked in last week’s homily that Jesus was training His disciples for the way in which their ministry would unfold as they went out into the world, carrying the good news of what God has done in Jesus Christ.  Last week, we noted that Jesus was training this godly army to carry a message of love, not destruction, to travel lightly and to put allegiance to Jesus first in their lives.  We also noted that these aspects of ministry were the hallmarks of the Apostles as they left Jerusalem after Jesus’ resurrection and ascension into heaven, carrying that good news into all the known world.

Now, with Jesus’ instructions to this wider band of disciples (seventy, or seventy-two), specific instructions about their behavior and about their conduct are spelled out.  Among these instructions,

1.  It will be a difficult mission:  Jesus is clear about the road which lies ahead, saying, “I am sending you out as lambs in the midst of wolves.”  Jesus expects these early disciples to use their energies and time wisely, offering the gift of God’s good work done in Jesus to everyone.  But, Jesus also cautions these disciples to use their energies and time wisely, concentrating them on those who seem to be willing to receive their message.

2.  Travel lightly:  This wider band of followers are to travel lightly, depending not on an extensive support system (whether it be in the form of lots of baggage or in money they are carrying with them), but depending on those who will be sympathetic to the gospel message. [3]

3.  Keep it simple:  Jesus, twice in His instructions, tells this advance guard that they are to eat what is provided.  And, they are not to move from house to house.  The reason for these instructions is to make clear that these disciples are not to use their ministry for personal gain, pitting one host against another in competition to see who can provide the better accommodations and meals.

Let’s reflect on all of this.

First of all, we noted a moment ago the reality of our faith walk….Sometimes, we will be asking God to do certain things for us.  At other times, God will be asking us to do things for Him.  These are the “givens” of being in relationship with God.

As we make our requests to God, we will have to set aside our own expectations of how God should answer our prayers.  Any preconceived ideas we might harbor will have to give way to the specifics of God’s answer to our prayers.  Be assured that God will answer our prayers, one way or another.  Succinctly put, God’s answers will fall into three general categories:  He will say “Yes”, “No”, or “Not now” to our requests.

The specifics of what God expects may come from unexpected and surprising sources….notice that, in Na’aman’s case, the connection to Elisha comes from a captured servant girl.  And, it is Na’aman’s servants who are the ones who remind him that Elisha is not telling him to do something that is difficult or onerous to do.  Sometimes, people we least expect will be agents of God’s guidance, enlightening us to look for the things we may have not known about, or reminding us that God’s requirements are within our ability to perform.

It is also worth noting that God will often test our faith.  Certainly, that was the case with Na’aman, who is told to bathe seven times in the Jordan.

Now, in the case of the disciples who are sent out in advance of the Lord’s visit, we note that the Lord was asking something of those early disciples…He is also asking the same sorts of things from us today.  He set specific instructions for the ways in which they were to conduct their ministry, ways that we, today, are to conduct that ministry of God’s which has been given into our hands to do. 

The rules set forth in Luke’s gospel account before us today are still in effect…we are to harbor no illusions about the road which lies ahead:  It will be a difficult one as we go forth into a world which is either indifferent to the gospel message, or which is outrightly hostile to it.  We are to use our time and our energies wisely as we go.  We are not to use the ministries which have been entrusted to us for personal gain or advancement, but we are to depend on God’s ability to give us what we need to do the work He has given us to do.  As we go forth, our faith in God’s power and in God’s ability to change the hearts and minds of those we encounter will be tested, for we go forth – as did these early disciples – as “lambs in the midst of wolves.

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[1] Or perhaps seventy two…the manuscripts to not agree on the number.  Some scholars have noted that the number seventy is the number of the nations of the world that are listed in Genesis, chapter ten….in the Hebrew text of that passage, the number of the nations is given as seventy, while in the Greek version of the same passage (known as the Septuagint, the number is given as seventy-two.  Most modern translations have tended to regard seventy-two as the more accurate number.

[2] In the Bible, the term “leprosy” applies to a number of skin disorders, not just to what is known today as “Hansen’s Disease”.  In any case, such skin problems rendered a person ritually unclean according to the Law of Moses.

[3] We noted that this as a theme in last week’s gospel reading, as well.